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Elon Musk owns Twitter: The story so far

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Re: Elon Musk owns Twitter: The story so far

#91

Prediction: Brain drain at Twitter begins as Elon starts enacting unpopular policies. Valuation tanks. Morale becomes non-existent and Twitter slowly starts to fade from existence while competitors begin to fill the void. I give it 3-5 years before it's gone full husk.

There are many people who support Elon and the policies he intends to enact. And if you don’t believe that’s the case, then I’d encourage you to have more conversations with people who don’t align with your views. I’m fairly confident he’ll have no shortage of talent willing to help implement his vision.

But nobody knows what policies he intends to enact. In fact, he immediately decided to offload all moderation decisions to some "council".

https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1586059953311137792

Or if I'm wrong and there is clear vision which these people support, can you please elaborate?

Re: Elon Musk owns Twitter: The story so far

#93
post #72

I find it kind of shocking that Musk likes Twitter that much, but at the same time it makes sense. If you ignore the wealth differential, his behaviour is similar to the average Twitter user. He may be the perfect owner in that sense. I also think it will be a clusterfuck within 5 years like some of his "side project" companies.

[deleted]

Re: Elon Musk owns Twitter: The story so far

#94

Prediction: Brain drain at Twitter begins as Elon starts enacting unpopular policies. Valuation tanks. Morale becomes non-existent and Twitter slowly starts to fade from existence while competitors begin to fill the void. I give it 3-5 years before it's gone full husk.

Brain drain? Twitter stock basically hasnt appreciated since IPO. They have been treading water for a decade, what brains are there providing value?

Perhaps the problem is greater than Twitter since many other companies (Snap, Pinterest, Reddit, etc) are in similar positions

Re: Elon Musk owns Twitter: The story so far

#95
post #8

It can be great for freedom of speech. Hopefully, it won't distract Elon too much from SpaceX, Tesla, and other important work. I still don't get how he managed to be CEO of multiple high-complexity companies. It's already not easy to be CEO of just one.

Will this " freedom of speech" include criticisms of the Chinese Government?

Re: Elon Musk owns Twitter: The story so far

#96

Prediction: Brain drain at Twitter begins as Elon starts enacting unpopular policies. Valuation tanks. Morale becomes non-existent and Twitter slowly starts to fade from existence while competitors begin to fill the void. I give it 3-5 years before it's gone full husk.

One can only dream.

For all of Musk's proponents' claims that this is a boon for "free speech", such free speech is anathema to corporate interests, particularly advertisers and corporate partners (we only need to look at the recent Ye + Adidas bustup).

Thus, it will likely devolve into "Free Speech (TM)", the my-way-or-the-highway speech policing that we see in places like /r/conservative where any criticism of Musk's preferred views is silenced. Again, we only need to take his own history towards criticism to see what Musk with a bullhorn is likely to do.

And, thus, we can only hope that it becomes such a cesspool of hatred such as Parler and other so-called liberterian free-speech platforms that it becomes toxic for investors and users, save for those who relish the echo-chamber.

One can dream.

Re: Elon Musk owns Twitter: The story so far

#97
post #95
post #8

It can be great for freedom of speech. Hopefully, it won't distract Elon too much from SpaceX, Tesla, and other important work. I still don't get how he managed to be CEO of multiple high-complexity companies. It's already not easy to be CEO of just one.

Will this " freedom of speech" include criticisms of the Chinese Government?

Hopefully yes.

Re: Elon Musk owns Twitter: The story so far

#98
post #44

Prediction: Brain drain at Twitter begins as Elon starts enacting unpopular policies. Valuation tanks. Morale becomes non-existent and Twitter slowly starts to fade from existence while competitors begin to fill the void. I give it 3-5 years before it's gone full husk.

Brain drains usually happen due to low or uncompetitive pay, not because of corporate ideology. Otherwise Facebook/Meta would have had a brain drain years ago.

It's a bit of both I imagine. And without stock-based compensation, Twitter is likely to become much less competitive in terms of pay than its peers.

Re: Elon Musk owns Twitter: The story so far

#99
post #11

I think the thing to watch will be ads and other revenue streams. Most companies aren't going to want their ads next to 'free for all' content, so we'll see what happens.

Well, speaking in those terms, I think the thing to watch will in fact be censorship. Elon is extremely idealistic, so it will be fascinating to watch him melt down when confronted with the reality of how complex free speech and censorship issues really are. I predict that he will succeed in turning Twitter into the rightwing safehaven that "Truth" Social, Parlor, etc have all been trying to become. He's making a dea…

And what if China requests a tweet removed or user banned and puts a Tesla factory or those sweet tax cuts on the line?

Re: Elon Musk owns Twitter: The story so far

#100

Prediction: Brain drain at Twitter begins as Elon starts enacting unpopular policies. Valuation tanks. Morale becomes non-existent and Twitter slowly starts to fade from existence while competitors begin to fill the void. I give it 3-5 years before it's gone full husk.

The brain drain was well under way already. A bunch of people I know who used to work at Twitter started looking the moment the deal was announced, and have already landed elsewhere.
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